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Because he is meant to be a democrat, he is meant to care about people, and should be tryinf to stop the armageddon that will occur if he causes the resumption of the slide of the global economy to the point where it can only support a small fraction of the current world population.
The republicans say 'everyman for himself', so if they let the US default and cause misery to millions, then they're not betraying their ethos.

Obama has to give way first, I don't even know why he's bothering to play chicken with them......its not just him thats playing it, he's playing chicken with the lives and livelyhoods of others, he should know he cant win this game (unless he genuinely does have bigger b**** than the republicans indifferent stupidity....or unless hes just stupid)

the idea of allowing employers to opt out health plans based on ideological reasons is not only inherently ridiculous but also sends a terrible message to their electorate which is probably why the democrats aren't backing down.

how can someone who cares risk that which they care for with someone who doesn't care? because they care about it is the answer. if they didn't care, what would be the point in risking it

and how do you get around american politics being like this? er, this is what you seem to get in a long-established, stuck-in-a-rut democracy. i don't see a way to get around it without getting rid of the "democracy" element so i'll leave it up to you to decide whether that's a good idea or not

how can someone who cares risk that which they care for with someone who doesn't care? because they care about it is the answer

that 'answer' "because they care about it" doesnt seem quite right somehow, I know this manner of answer has become part of rhetoric ((not 'rhetoric' in the shallow commonly used sense)), but I am not convinced by the logicality of it (its difficult what with verbal reasoning not being proper like maths......unless you ascribe words as variables, where the only detail you have about them is that some are partly operators and others are differently variable)

i believe Obama cares about ObamaCare getting through for two reasons 1) right thing for the country 2) how much of a loser he'll look to his party and the population if it doesn't get through right now

if politicians didn't care about wanting to get the things they believed ought to be got through (for whatever reasons) through, what would be the point in them wanting to be politicians? if you don't do anything, you don't really have power

I mean... why be United? The states and the politics of the states are so opposite and opposed in certain areas, it seems more and more like they cannot agree on anything anymore. So... this shutdown is the natural position for a government balanced into two factions that opposed each other perfectly.

The only difference is our system doesn't allow the executive and legislature to indefinitely stalemate each other, but you could still divide the nation into two opposed halves if your definitions are broad enough.

I just meant if you wanted to create a left/right divide, progressive vs conservative or however you want to define it. I don't think it is accurate, but I don't think the image of a dramatically halved America is true either - this stalemate is being pushed by a hardline Tea Party right of the Republican party, I don't think it sums up the views of half of the US population. While the system over there may do more to make it R/D, red/blue distinction, at an individual level people are on as broad a spectrum as they are here. The narrative may look like the US is a country divided in two, but the reality, as always, is more complex and subtle.

Having electoral district boundaries drawn by independent bodies instead of whichever party happens to be in charge of the state in the year the new lines have to be drawn each decade would mean representatives have to be more in tune with popular opinion.

The current system means a huge number of Republicans, due to their rigged drawing skillz in creating districts that are 60%+ Republican, are almost completely insulated from any possibility of being turfed out of office except from not being rightwing ENOUGH.

It's ridiculous that that sentence is true, but it is. Because if they cave this time, it's going to happen *every* time. Republicans could agree to only raise the limit by tens of billions at a time, which means the need to raise it several times a year, and each time having to give a pound of flesh.

At that point, the entire structure of government has been uprooted, from a majority-based democracy to a minority ruling by threat of political terrorism.

I'm not trying to say the Republicans aren't being dicks, or that the situation doesn;t need to be sorted out to stiop it continuously happening. However, if the US defaults, the world might actually end.

but to be honest no-one knows just how bad it could be because it's an unprecendented event for a major country to refuse to pay its debts.

The certainty would be that borrowing costs would immediately rise and stay high for possibly as long as a generation, which impacts almost every area of the economy, including people's mortgages which could lead to another housing crisis since credit would be harder to come by. And virtually everything would cost more because imports would cost more due to the currency being downgraded.

It would cause at least two large scale wars, and it would actually affect the day to day economy. You know when 2007/8 crisis happened but you could still buy milk? Well if the US defaults you might not be able to:

China: China owns $1.2 trillion worth of US debt, it may be the second largest economy in the world, but you can;t take that much money out of your piggy bank and not feel it. As much of their growwth is still investm,ent based, Chinese growth would grind to a halt, maybe even real recession. This would utterly fuck up not only the economies of Australia and developing Africa, but also Europe too. With the US dollar basically worthless the value of the Yaun would shoot up, no more cheap imports from China = lots of inflation.

Uk - we own a lot of US debt, we'd probably default on our debt. Even if we didn't we'd take a huge hit as the world gets upset.

South America/Africa/Asia Pacific - All those countries pegged to the dollar, or who have borrowed in dollars or who rely on US aid? Oh well nice knowing you all.

Middle East - The US would have to withdraw, leaving an enormous power vacuum. Saudi and Iran would square up to each other, Iraq would implode. Faced with a world without US financial and Military aid, Israel might let of a nuke or two just to show they've got the marbles.

Russia - They'd be fine, except all the US banks who bankroll them for short term liquidity would collapse, so maybe not.

On the bright side I'm backing myself as a Game of Thrones style Feudal lord. Markee could be my jester or something.

it just needs a floor vote. Every Democrat will vote for it, which means only about 20 (I think) Republicans need to vote for it - there's certainly 20 who would if it came down to it. Which is why default isn't going to happen

But Republicans aren't going to allow it to happen - they did the same thing last time and caved, which means they'll do it again. Even they get it. Well, enough of them anyway to avoid catastophe. And which is why Democrats shouldn't cave first.

but the problem is playing brinkmanship with republican nutters.............what if it went wrong? (perhaps I am too much of a coward? perhaps Im just too affeared of republican?, perhaps they arnt as sociopathical as I believe?)

conservative and cautious defensive armour that I deploy in timid way in which I post.

Respect due to you Parsefone, the world would be a dull and grey place without you.

(DISCLAIMER - Please do not take personal offence at the vehemance of my sarcasm, it is part of my 2 week trialing of a 'new personna, creakyknees v3.00. I hope to soon deploy a patch, v3.01 as a workrouind fix for several spelling and grammatical defects, as soon as I establish the Root Cause I will redesign and release Creakyknees v4.0. Unless off course I have to back out of this new persona)

without speculating on it ending in disaster and acknowledging that ultimately you're pretty powerless. Obviously I'm not saying we shouldn't have a social conscience, and I think we should stand up for important things, but there comes a point where you have no power to change anything, and I think it's important for mental health to kind of know where that is and not let the stuff beyond that line affect you too much.

all democrats have to do is slowly chip away at some of the more moderate republicans in moderate seats to get a majority to vote for a clean CR. The only problem is Boehner might be worried he might not be speaker for too much longer, this could actually take ages